


A Wizard in the Kitchen

by fengirl88



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Cooking, Domestic, Gen, Spoilers, Stealth Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 10:59:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7712341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fengirl88/pseuds/fengirl88
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The apron's a wedding present from Ron.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Wizard in the Kitchen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Owl_by_Night](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owl_by_Night/gifts).



> Minor spoilers for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and inspired by one line from the script. Thanks to Owl_by_Night for prompting this fic, which is for her.

The apron's a wedding present from Ron. His idea of a joke; it wouldn't be Hermione's. It's a frilly 1950s creation, the kind you'd see in old films or sitcoms on Muggle TV. Oh, and it's pink.

“I can't believe you still have that thing,” Hermione says, rolling her eyes.

“I think it suits him,” Ron says, though he's gone slightly red. He's been married to Hermione long enough that it wouldn't be his idea of a joke now either, but he's done with apologising for it.

“I only wear it for special occasions,” Harry says, deadpan. “Usually it's the chef's whites and the hat, but since it's just the four of us for once -”

“Yes, where is Lily tonight?” Hermione asks.

“Pancake Day sleepover at Luna and Rolf's,” Ginny says. 

“Lily and the twins and pancakes? That's going to be chaos,” Ron says, with more than a touch of Schadenfreude.

“I know!” Ginny says. “I can't believe the house is so _quiet_.”

“Oh right, is that why we're here?” Ron says. “Ow.”

Ron doesn't get any more tactful with age, and it's true: for a lot of couples with kids, maybe this would be the cue for a romantic night out. Or in. Maybe if Harry's mind wasn't always on his work, or worrying about Al - _Albus_ , he corrects himself - and whether he's fitting in at Hogwarts, there'd be space for that. But he's never known how to be that sort of husband, and it would feel weird to start now. He's not even sure Ginny would want him to.

“Right,” he says, turning the heat up under the frying-pan. “It's pancake time.”

He takes the batter out of the fridge; it's been standing for half an hour so it should be just right by now.

“Here's one I made earlier,” Hermione says.

“Get a grown-up to help you with this bit,” Ron chimes in.

“Speak for yourself,” Ginny says. “You spend too much time watching Muggle kids' TV.” 

“There's a science to this, you know,” Harry says, tilting the pan and loosening the edges of the pancake. He flips it perfectly, and Hermione applauds.

“It's all in the wrist action,” Ron says, and grins at him. 

Harry grins back, discards the test pancake and embarks on another. “According to these Muggle scientists, the angular velocity is the square root of PI times the gravity divided by the distance of the pancake from the elbow times four -”

“Oh right,” Ron says. “So you've got to factor in the height of the tosser. Especially if he's a notorious shortarse.”

Ginny squirts him with the plastic lemon, and there is a brief undignified scuffle.

“I knew there was a reason we had that thing,” Harry says. “OK, Hermione - help yourself to proper lemon if you want it, sugar, maple syrup, berries, that chocolate nut stuff, jam, bananas, whatever... Eat it while it's hot; there'll be another one along in a minute.”

Ron groans in anticipation. “Starving wizard over here, just saying. My stomach's been rumbling for _hours_.”

“Quiet, you,” Harry says affectionately, and pours more batter into the pan. “You're next.”

“If I wasn't married already, Harry, I swear I'd propose to you just for your pancakes,” Hermione says, mopping the last of the syrup from her plate. 

“He's a good cook,” Ginny says. 

She puts her arms around him, and he leans back against her, just for a moment. Then he flips Ron's pancake, watches till it's done to perfection and slides it onto the plate. “There you go, gannet.”

“Culinary magic,” Hermione says, over Ron's noisy sighs of appreciation.

Harry shakes his head and smiles. “Just cooking.”

It's what he likes about it, though he doesn't know if she'd understand that. The ordinariness of it, the daily life he's never been able to take for granted. Nobody taught him how to do any of this; he had to make it up as he went along. And he has. He may not be much of a husband or a dad in other ways, but he can do this. Cooking for his family, his friends. And for the moment, in the moment, here in the warmth of the kitchen, it's enough.

**Author's Note:**

> The BBC News report on the physics of pancake tossing is [here](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2817093.stm).
> 
>  _Here's one I made earlier_ and _Get a grown-up to help you with this bit_ : references to the BBC children's programme Blue Peter.


End file.
